Legislation Banning Wolf-Whistling Amended to Remove ‘It Was Just a Joke’ Defence

MP Christopher Chope concerned about boys being seen as 'potential perverts'

Greg Clark arrives for a Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in London on July 12, 2022. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has backed a private members’ bill that would outlaw wolf-whistling even if the person responsible thinks it is “just a joke.”

Wolf-whistles and cat calls are just one type of “sex-based harassment” included in the bill which has been proposed by Conservative backbench MP Greg Clark.

The bill makes it an offence to cause “intentional harassment, alarm or distress” to a person in public based on their sex, and offenders face a maximum of two years in jail.

On Friday, Clark told the House of Commons: “For the first time in our history, deliberately harassing, following, shouting degrading words at, making obscene gestures at women and girls in public places and yes, on occasion, men and boys in public places because of their sex with the deliberate intention to cause alarm or distress will be a specific offence and a serious one.”

‘Women Should Be Able to Use Streets … Safely’

He said: “Women should be able to use our streets as confidently and safely as men, free from abuse, free from humiliation, free from violence, physical or verbal.”

Clark proposed an amendment that would remove the defence of “reasonableness,” meaning someone could not escape prosecution by saying they thought they were behaving reasonably and were unaware they were causing offence.

The amendment—which was passed—followed concerns raised by Labour MP Stella Creasy, who said: “Women and girls often get told ‘you can’t take a joke’ or ‘it was just a compliment’ when they object to being harassed, but without change this public order law risks making that an actual defence to a criminal offence.”

Labour MP Stella Creasy holds her baby daughter in the House of Commons in London as she contributes to a debate. (House of Commons/PA)

The amendment introduces a “reasonableness test” and assumes defendants “ought to know” their behaviour amounted to harassment.

Creasy told the debate: “Misogyny is driving crime against women and girls ... This legislation for the first time ever, recognises that women are being targeted, simply because they are women. That young girls in our society walk with their keys, get asked ‘what were you wearing?’, are told not to get on buses at certain time of night, to be frightened, to be wary in a way that young men don’t.”

The Home Office has listed the types of behaviour that count as street harassment as making an obscene, aggressive, or offensive comment or gesture; “cornering” a person or obstructing them as they walk; or driving or riding a vehicle or bike slowly near to a person walking down the street.

Braverman told The Telegraph: “Women have the fundamental right to walk the streets without fear and I’m committed to ensuring that criminals who intimidate and harass them face the consequences.

“This is why we are backing the Protection from Sex-Based Harassment in Public Bill, and after carefully considering a range of views, we are supporting an amendment that will require the government to produce statutory guidance for the police to help them enforce the new offence,” she added.

Braverman said, “The new guidance will clarify in particular how the ‘reasonable conduct’ defence should be interpreted, to ensure any new law is as robust as possible.”

Christopher Chope—a 75-year-old Conservative MP who has been in Parliament since 1983—spoke in Friday’s debate about his concerns about the legislation.

Chope is a stickler for parliamentary procedure and often tables amendments to legislation.

Chope quoted from a recent article in The Spectator in which journalist Gus Carter wrote: “Males are routinely presented as inherently dangerous, aggressive and animalistic, incapable of controlling their own instincts. You can see it on public transport, where government adverts announce that staring is sexual harassment.”

He said a former female teacher, quoted in the same article, said, “Boys are now being seen as potential perverts.”

Responding to Chope, Creasy said, “We’ve got to stand up for the bulk of young men who know when they see that and when they realise what is happening to their sisters, to their mums, to their friends in school, their aunties, their cousins, how awful it must be that 51 percent of our society does not have the same freedom to go about their daily business.”

Creasy Decries Idea ‘Boys Will Be Boys’

She said, “Those young men deserve better than the idea that somehow this kind of behaviour is inevitable, that boys will be boys.”

Home Office minister Chris Philp said: “I would like to take the opportunity to ... confirm clearly that the defendant in this offence could be a man or a woman and the victim could be a man or a woman.”

Philp gave a “firm undertaking” that the government would seek to bring the legislation into force as soon as possible, “because this bill clearly commands in principle very widespread support across the House, and for the sake of protecting women and men it’s important that we get this onto the statute books and operational and effective as quickly as we possibly can.”

Philp also pointed out the adverts Chope referred to on public transport were produced by the mayor of London and not the government.

After the bill was given its third reading in the Commons, Clark said it was a “historic” moment.

It will now go to the House of Lords and could be given Royal Assent this summer.